This invention relates to tufting machines, and more particularly to a yarn guide device for a multiple-needle tufting machine.
In a typical multiple-needle machine, the base fabric is fed through the machine in a feeding direction from the front or input side of the machine to the rear, output, or fabric delivery side of the machine. Moreover, the yarn for the needles is fed down through the front or input side of the machine. There have been some specialized multiple-needle tufting machines, particularly of finer gauge, which have included means for feeding the yarn to the needles down both the front and the back of the machine.
In the normal operation of a typical multiple-needle tufting machine having front yarn feed, two operators are utilized. A first operator is stationed in front of the machine for observing the condition of the yarns fed to the needles, and also for controlling the tufting operation, that is the operation of the needles penetrating the base fabric. A second operator, usually referred to as in inspector/mender is stationed at the rear of the machine to observe the tufted fabric and inspect for defects in the face or tufted yarn. When a defect is spotted, the second operator stops the tufting machine and repairs or mends the carpet with a handheld, pistol-type, tufting mending gun. The second operator can also control the carpet re-roll machine which may be stopped and started independently of the tufting machine.
Also, in a typical multiple-needle tufting machine, the yarns are fed down the front face of the tufting machine, toward the needles through a plurality of yarn guides. Each yarn guide is typically an elongated bar perforated or drilled with a plurality of holes, each hole being large enough in diameter to freely receive a yarn. There may be several spaced perforated yarn guides mounted on the front of the machine between the yarn supply or yarn feed rolls and the needle bar. One example of such a yarn guide arrangement is disclosed in the R. T. Card U.S. Pat. No. 3,075,482.
Apertured thread or yarn guides may also be employed to direct the yarn around the yarn feed rolls to provide the proper wrap for the yarns about the surfaces of the feed rolls. Moreover, there is a stationary thread jerker fixed to the machine housing and a movable thread jerker attached to the needle bar, both of which are usually apertured or perforated for receiving individually threaded yarns. A final thread guide is usually fixed to a needle bar adjacent the needles for guiding the threads from the yarn jerkers to the needles. An example of the stationary and movable yarn jerkers and the needle bar thread guide are illustrated in the Card U.S. Pat. No. 3,075,482. Another example of the apertured stationary and movable yarn jerker bars is disclosed in the R. T. Card U.S. Pat. No. 3,442,233.
An example of a plurality of spaced yarn or thread guides on both the front and back face of the tufting machine is disclosed in the Nowicki U.S. Pat. No. 3,396,687.
If each tufting machine is feeding several hundred yarns to corresponding needles through five or six yarn guides, each yarn guide having a guide hole for each yarn, the time required for threading each of the several hundred yarns through all of their respective guide holes becomes excessive.
Yarn guide tubes have been employed to guide yarns from the feed rolls or yarn supply to the needles, but such yarn guide tubes have been mounted on the front face of the machine, and are utilized in unequal lengths to feed yarns in repeat patterns to the needles, as illustrated in the J. L. Card U.S. Pat. No. 2,862,465, issued Dec. 2, 1958. Moreover, these yarn guide tubes previously used are stationarily mounted upon the front face of the tufting machine.